Weekly Meal Plan: Jan. 16, 2012 – Jan. 22, 2012)

I managed to finish next week’s menu plan pretty early this week – so here it is! You’ll notice there’s quite a bit of spinach planned into this week. This is because I sent Mr. Nest to Costco to get a container of organic spinach, now the one he normally gets is maybe 1.5x the size of the little box you would get in a regular grocery store and I finish it in about a week. This time they were apparently out of what he normally gets, so he brought home the most gigantic bag of spinach I’ve EVER SEEN! I’ll post a picture soon, but its huge. Now I have to figure out how to use it all before it goes bad – hence, the spinach salads.

Early Prep: Make Pizza Dough

We like to use Alton Brown’s pizza crust recipe (linked below) and we find it’s best if it sits in the fridge for at least 2 days – it’s less bready and more chewy, just the way we like it!

I’ve heard these are good, plus they look like they would work nicely to freeze and defrost as a quick meal after Tot arrives. Basic baked potato and veggie. Mr. Nest is also feeling like he needs to watch his calories and pump up the protein (he’s been Bodyrocking and I’m jealous, because I found the site first and I can’t do it! It’s not something I’m comfortable starting when 26 weeks pregnant.) So this fits in well with his current eating philosophy.

Mr. Nest LOVES chicken soup, and he also loves it when I make homemade noodles for it, so I’ll spoil him. Plus, it’s fairly healthy and low calorie (believe it or not PW does post some pretty healthy stuff!) and it makes all kinds of leftovers for weekday lunches.

Sunday: Maple-Dijon Salmon with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Veggie

Simple, easy. I’ll just bake up the salmon and add the Maple-Dijon sauce after the fact. I basically mix up maple syrup, dijon mustard and maybe a little apple cider vinegar until I like the flavor profile for the sauce. Maybe I’ll pay attention to the amounts this time around and post the recipe.

I’m making the protein bars for a couple reasons: 1) I’m ravenous and I’m hoping these fill me up! 2) Mr. Nest is trying to consume high protein foods. I’ve heard these are good, so I’m looking forward to trying them! I will modify a bit by using real brown sugar (maybe a little less of it) in place of the Xylitol. I’m not interested in buying artificial sweeteners, it’s just not my thing. I’d rather have real sugar in moderation.

Then, I’ll have 8 egg yolks leftover after the protein bars, so I’ll make some homemade ice cream! We use a particular recipe out of Alton Brown’s Good Eats cookbook (I can never remember if it’s in 1 or 2) but I can’t find it listed on a website anywhere. He does have other recipes listed though – so if you Google it you’re sure to find something tasty to make.